This winter gone she was back to France to the Mount Ventoux area and St. Leger where she made quick redpoints of three Fr 8a's. Lucy describes St. Leger du Ventoux, " In my opinion St. Leger is world class and the numerous foreign visitors seems to back that up. This crag is made up of tufa lines which are really compelling. It was very dry for most of the winter months."
Lucy and her partner the photographer Tim Glasby were renting a gite off Ollie and Jess Ryall (http://www.climbfrance.com/) and using their local knowledge Lucy found out about a nearby bouldering area where she grabbed a first ascent of a very hard traverse.
"I was quite psyched for some bouldering as I knew my strength and power was down so it was a good way to work on that and have some fun. I normally do a lot of gym work over the winter but being out in the sticks here that wasn't an option."
The traverse is a monster.
"There were seemingly blank sections that initially didn't seem possible to climb. At times I thought I was just going to have to end it in the middle of nowhere but after a lot of searching and fiddling around with minging little crimps and bobbly open handed things, I managed to extend it until it finished naturally on slab and good holds- very satisfying. I could only chalk my hands once each on the whole thing"
Lucy continues,
"It's a power endurance epic as you can't shake out on it, so you just have to push on doing lots of 6b moves (and the odd 6c) without a break. It ended up being 36 moves long, feeling like an 8b+ if it was a route, quite similar to Ben's roof- Raven Tor but not quite as bicepy. So I've given it font 7c+. I've decide to call it 'Trente-six'. Because it was 36 moves for me and bizarrely I did it on my 36th birthday"
Lucy is sponsored by Scarpa, Grivel, Marmot, Petzl and Beal.
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